Contact details

Warren has published over 25 research papers in scientific journals in the fields of mathematical modelling and perturbation theory. He has received grants from the EPSRC and has collaborated with research groups in the Netherlands, United States and world-leading multinationals.

Warren has pioneered the application of strongly nonlinear analysis to the Navier-Stokes equations. Original results have resulted for the decay rate of the oscillations of viscous drops and the modulation equations for travelling waves.

Qualifications

PG Cert in Learning and Teaching 2003

DPhil in Mathematical Modelling 1992

MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis 1990

BSc (Hons) in Mathematics 1989

Biography

Warren Smith obtained a first class BSc (Hons) in Mathematics from Warwick University in 1989. He then moved to Exeter College, Oxford to attend the taught MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Numerical Analysis and study for a DPhil modelling the latest design of Rolls-Royce gas journal bearing.

His doctorate was followed by a short period in scientific consultancy, an EPSRC-funded Postdoctoral Research Assistant in the University of Nottingham and an EU-funded ECMI Research Fellowship in TU Eindhoven. In 2001, he accepted a Lectureship at the University of Birmingham in which he remains apart from a three-month fellowship at Cornell University.

Warren acts as a reviewer for more than ten leading scientific journals, the research councils and AMS Mathematical Reviews. He has been invited to contribute to a special issue of the Journal of Engineering Mathematics, delivered invited lectures at mini-symposium and organised a study group for mathematics in industry in the Netherlands.

Teaching

Methods in Partial Differential Equations

Continuum Mechanics

Postgraduate supervision

Mathematical modelling of the distensible tube wave energy converter

Strongly nonlinear analysis applied to the Navier-Stokes equations

PhD opportunities

Research

RESEARCH THEMES

Perturbation theory

Strongly nonlinear analysis

RESEARCH ACTIVITY

In the last few years, Warren has pioneered the application of strongly nonlinear analysis to the Navier-Stokes equations. This analysis has already succeeded in determining a quadratic variation in decay rate with amplitude for the oblate-prolate oscillations of a viscous drop of incompressible fluid. It has also determined modulation equations for finite-amplitude laminar nonlinear waves in an incompressible fluid at high Reynolds number.

Throughout his academic career, Warren has sought after multi-scale industrial topics. These allow the application of regular perturbation theory (for example, in laser percussion drilling) or singular perturbation theory (for example, in semiconductor lasers). The European Study Groups with Industry (ESGI), links with ECMI and interdisciplinary collaboration have provided sources for these projects. During his career, he has collaborated with mechanical engineers (Brunel, Oxford), electrical engineers (Nottingham), chemical engineers (Cornell, Eindhoven) and physicists (Eindhoven).